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I had a lot of fun reading the book How to Catch Santa to my son's kindergarten class. It's written by Jean Reagan. I thought I would share the lesson in case you want to use it.

I started off by having a Christmas bag filled with goodies. In the bag was a picture of a period and a question mark. I also had a gift box, a small Santa, and some garland. As a preview to the book, I pulled items out of my bag one at a time. I first told them we were going to read a book about how to catch Santa, and that's when I pulled Santa out of the bag. He got to sit by me while I read. I then pulled the picture of the period out and we reviewed what it was and where it goes in a sentence. I explained that while I was reading, they needed to think about something they would like to tell Santa. I pulled the question mark out and we discussed when and where we use a question mark. I told them they would be coming up with a question they would like to ask Santa. A gift box came out next and we talked about how Santa gives us gifts, but what if we gave him a gift, what might we like to give him? Last, I pulled out my garland and we discussed the name of the book being How to Catch Santa, and would garland work to catch him? By this time, they were eager to hear the story.

The story covers all of those topics above. It focuses on being prepared if you do catch Santa. Being prepared means you aren't going to have much time once you catch him, so you need to know one question to ask him, one thing to tell him, a gift you would give him, and of course you need to know what your plan is to catch him. It's a fun story that sparks the kids' imagination.

If you choose to do this activity with your class, here is a follow up activity where students can write down their answers to the topics mentioned above. You can get the activity by clicking the link below.